Do or Do Not, There is No Try

Sometimes, I can’t help but give in to distractions every time I try to study some basic C++ just to have a better understanding of programming itself before I go down the MQL rabbit hole. Then sometimes I feel like just giving up and continue how I trade now, never try to level it up anymore because of the reality being shown in the chart below.

At first I thought it was laziness that makes me get easily distracted. But every time I see news like this, I feel inspired to be like this guy, and all others who are into algorithmic trading—not only because it’s the in thing to do, but also because it greatly improves ones trading mechanism with its speed and lack of personal biases, though it definitely entails more hard work than before. Prices now don’t seem to always follow fundamentals and traditional macroeconomics unlike before so it’s better to be more agile and jump in the automation wagon, especially when news-sensitive algorithmic trading done by the big players cause weird spikes out of nowhere like this and could trigger most stop losses:

But going deeper in my psyche, I realized it’s not laziness but feeling discouraged because of my fear of failure. I mean, if these hedge fund stars lost, then what are the chances of winning for rookies like me, right?

Only when we are no longer afraid do we begin to live – Dorothy Thompson

But I also read somewhere that usually fear of failure instead of lack of ability keeps us from succeeding. Losses are of course, inevitable. It’s part of the risk in trading, there will always be losses from time to time. So I think it’s a normal thing for the pros as well, and even if they had certain losses in a particular year, it doesn’t mean they’re a failure. In fact, they have succeeded in minimizing losses so that’s still a win.

Going back to programming and algorithmic trading, I should definitely continue to do it, and I guess so should others who chose this kind of life, trade at home full-time. Might as well give our 100% abilities in it and never second-guess ourselves anymore. The stuff we automate at home may be far from the kind of algorithm technology they use in banks and hedge funds, but at least it’s a good start especially when we keep these tips in mind (although contrary to what the author said there in the last part, HFT is now prevalent in currency trading too). If ever we experience losing, just learn some more while minimizing losses. We won’t “try again”. We will do it.